Myanmar

It was a routine, sweltering mid-April day in a village for internally displaced people living just one kilometer from the Thailand-Myanmar border. Then a medic counted up five kids she had seen with coughs, pink eye and a red rash all over the body.

Were there more children with these symptoms in their village? Many, the medic was told, and she immediately suspected measles, a vaccine-preventable virus that is highly contagious and can spread quickly, especially where malnutrition is rife and healthcare services almost non-existent.

A capsule of Vitamin A reduces blindness and a child’s chance of death by one-third. Deworming medication just twice a year combats malnutrition and improves a child’s cognitive capacities. Like immunizations, these are simple, effective and low cost interventions that greatly improve family and community health.

At midnight in the rugged jungle of eastern Myanmar, a village headman’s young daughter was in labor, lying on a mat in the small hut she shared with her husband. She was petite and anemic from malnutrition and a history of malaria. A traditional birth attendant, an older woman relying on experience and local remedies, was by her side. The baby finally emerged, a healthy squalling boy. But the placenta did not come out, and the situation quickly turned dire as the new mother began to bleed heavily.

Women in eastern Myanma face enormous risks having children: the vast majority are anemic and deliver their babies without trained assistance or access to emergency obstetric services. Nearly 1% of pregnancies result in maternal death, mostly from bleeding after delivery or infection — one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world.

The Thai-Myanmar border is often described as an "epicenter" of drug-resistant malaria. Malaria prevalence (the proportion of the population with the disease at any time) among internally displaced people in eastern Myanmar is up to twenty times higher than across the border in Thailand.

Myanmar has historically been a regional epicenter of spreading resistance to vital anti-malarial drugs, and currently records Ithe second most malaria deaths of any country in Southeast Asia. The situation is worst in the remote and underserved ethnic minority border regions, which are largely inaccessible to large-scale international efforts.

Safe births, children who have essential immunizations and enough to eat, prevention and treatment of infectious disease, community health education — these are the foundations for healthy, vigorous communities.

Featured Publications

"The Long Road to Recovery: Ethnic and Community-Based Health Organizations Leading the Way to Better Health in Eastern Burma" (CPI Partners Report, February 2015)

Based on the first large-scale health survey conducted since the recent ceasefires and political reform, this report by CPI partners with technical support from CPI, highlights the fragile gains and continuing challenges to achieving sustainable health improvements in eastern Myanmar. Click